Why the Actor / Writer strike should matter to you. If you have ever held a job, you most likely have been there. The moment when you realize your powerlessness and that you matter far less to your company than the bottom line. In our era of record corporate profits…

A journey into the belly of the wholesale beast — Recently a friend convinced me to buy a membership to Costco. I was reluctant, but the promise of amazing deals won me over. …

A great American writer has left us, but he left us better off — It’s Blood Meridian I just cannot shake off of me. Like the dust from the terrible trails McCarthy described, the story sticks to me and pervades my being. It is a peculiarly American dust, of the frontier and old reckonings. I have had similar experiences with other American novels, to…

An ancient tradition of celebration has a lot to offer us — This year’s summer solstice will occur on June 21 at 04:24 UTC. Throughout human history, cultures worldwide have marked this astronomical event as an important spiritual occasion. Being the moment when the earth is at its maximum tilt towards the sun, it is viewed as the official first day of…

How traditional Chinese architecture reflects the wisdom of the sages. — There is a preferred geometry to the layout of traditional houses in China. This geometry is a formula derived from a long history of cosmology, lore, superstition, astrology, zodiac traditions, geomancy, spiritual divination, philosophy, horoscope, Ba Gua, Feng Shui and mythology. Laying out the dimensions and aspects of a building…

How my arrogance taught me to ask questions, listen and learn — Each year the South Shore Yacht Club of Newport Beach, California holds a two-handed sailboat race that takes place from Newport Beach, courses north, then west, then south around Catalina Island and then east returning to Newport Beach the next morning. …

Give the people what they want…or else. — “The people desire only two things: bread and circuses.” The quote is attributed to Juvenal. Writing around 100AD, he was advising his readers that the rulers of the empire were consistently distracting the citizens of Rome with frivolous entertainment, misinformation and a steady program of frivolity to make sure they…

A Father’s Day memorial — Maybe there is a train in a station. Maybe this station is in Shanghai. Maybe the year is 1949. Maybe this is the last train that will leave Shanghai before Mao’s army raises the red flag of revolution above the city. Thousand upon thousands want to take this train, but…

The current Hollywood writers strike is a pretty good TV show in itself. — At the end of Clifford Odets’ classic 1935 play Waiting for Lefty, a union agitator cries out to the exploited cab drivers of New York: “Hello America! We are the storm birds of the working class workers of the world….What’s the answer?” The frenzied cabbies all shout in response: “Strike!” …